RBS Fair Game for Libor Probe Canadian Regulator Claims

June 23 (Bloomberg) -- Canadian antitrust regulators are
asserting their authority to investigate alleged interest-rate
fixing by banks, including JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Royal Bank
of Scotland Group Plc, saying the companies formed an
“international cartel.”

The nation’s Competition Bureau asked a judge to quash a
challenge to its jurisdiction by RBS, according to documents
filed by the bureau this week in Ontario Superior Court. RBS
obtained an “interim stay” in February on a court order
compelling it to turn over records related to the case.

Canadian officials are examining whether firms conspired to
affect prices on derivatives linked to the Yen London interbank
offered rate, according to court documents filed in May 2011.
Regulators in the U.S., Europe and Asia also have been probing
the case.

To assist with the investigation, the bureau obtained a
court order requiring the firms to provide documents such as a
list of individuals responsible for making Yen Libor submissions
and internal communications.

Such court orders “may be the only tool available to the
commissioner to obtain evidence of an international cartel
formed by foreign-based persons impacting the Canadian economy
but where the records are held in a foreign jurisdiction, as is
the situation in this inquiry,” Ann Salvatore, the Competition
Bureau’s assistant deputy commissioner, said in a June 7
affidavit.

Antitrust regulators need the tools to investigate conduct
abroad, given evidence that “international cartels are of a
significant concern for the Canadian economy,” University of
Toronto law professor Michael Trebilcock, who was hired by the
bureau to study the case, said in a separate affidavit.

Ed Canaday, spokesman for Royal Bank of Scotland, declined
comment on the bureau’s filing. Spokesmen for the other banks
have declined to comment on the matter.